Obama: 'I'd think' about changing Redskins name

10/5/13 10:25 AM EDT

President Barack Obama says if he owned the Washington Redskins, he’d think about changing the team’s name.

But he doesn’t believe D.C. area fans mean to offend by using the name, which has drawn renewed criticism for being offensive to Native Americans, the president told the AP in an interview released Saturday morning.

"If I were the owner of the team and I knew that the name of my team, even if they've had a storied history, that was offending a sizable group of people, I'd think about changing it,” Obama said.

“I don't want to detract from the wonderful Redskins fans that are here. They love their team, and rightly so -- even though they've been having a pretty tough time this year,” he said, according to a AP transcript of the interview.

“But I think – all these mascots and team names related to Native Americans, Native Americans feel pretty strongly about it. And I don't know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real, legitimate concerns that people have about these things,” he added.

"As a supporter of President Obama, I am sure the president is not aware that in the highly respected Annenberg Institute poll (taken 2004) with a national sample of Native Americans, 9 out of 10 Native Americans said they were not bothered by the name the "Washington Redskins." The president made these comments to the Associated Press, but he was apparently unaware that an April 2013 AP poll showed that eight out of ten of all Americans in a national sample don't think the Washington Redskins name should be changed.

"We at the Redskins respect everyone. But like devoted fans of the Atlanta Braves, the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Blackhawks (from President Obama's home town ), we love our team and its name and, like those fans, we do not intend to disparage or disrespect a racial or ethnic group. The name "Washington Redskins" is 80 years old - it's our history and legacy and tradition. We Redskins fans sing 'hail to the Redskins' every Sunday as a word of honor not disparagement."